Personal Finance Software Reviews and Buying Guide:

Ease of use and installation - Make sure any software you buy is compatible with your operating system. There are plenty of reviews online for software that doesn't work on Windows 7 properly. Install should be simple and painless. The features should be user friendly and navigation the screens should be intuitive.
Banking/Bills - Online banking features are nice, but not essential. Some offer account reconciliation, electronic payments, ability to print checks, write checks, and more.
Investing - Do you want to manage your stocks, 401K, mutual funds.
Tax Preparation - Being able to export your data into tax software is a huge bonus.
Financial Planning/Retirement - Plan college savings, retirement funds, home purchase, etc.

Not everyone needs all the above features, but certainly you want some. We found several websites that directly compare several personal finance software products including Quicken 2010, Moneydance, Budget Express, etc. Want to read personal finance software reviews? - Get to Amazon.com and read the hundreds of owner postings with comments and feedback on several software products. Get the pros and cons before you buy anything. You can browse the best selling personal finance software products here.

Best Personal Finance Software: A recognized name in the industry is Intuit. They have been making Quicken for years and it's probably the most popular personal finance software on the market. Available in computer stores, online, and at the Intuit website. You can download the latest version right to your computer and install it within minutes. We read lots of reviews online and plenty of users say the 2010 version does not compare to the 2009 edition. We downloaded the 2010 Deluxe version from the Intuit website and were up and running almost instantly. The big plus for me was being able to export my old MS Money file into the Quicken interface and be able to use all that data going forward. I had nearly 7 years built up and I would have hated to lose it. I did have to run through some hoops to get the older version of MS Money transferred to a newer version of the software and then export it but it worked out just fine. Now I can manage both my personal and business banking and keep track of the basics. I still use Quickbooks for my true business accounting, but Quicken does a great job of dealing with the simple aspects of savings and checking accounts. The cost is $39.95 with the Premier edition for $59.99. Another plus was that it came with Willmaker Plus which I already walked through and now have a legal will document for my family. Check out the Quicken finance products here.

Other Personal Finance Software: